A Long March 4C (CZ-4C) launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, at 0627 GMT on 31 March. The rocket carried Yaogan 34-04 into a 63 degree, low Earth orbit. Both the Long March 4C rocket and its payload for this mission are built by SAST (Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology).
Officially according to Chinese media this series of satellites has many civil remote sensing functions such as “land resources survey” and “disaster prevention”. However it is believed by western observers that due to its orbit in fact these satellites are used to observe maritime targets for the Chinese military.
